Last week I promised to catch you up a little bit more on what’s been flowing across my review shelf, so here’s the latest whiskey news you can use:
I haven’t actually tried this first whiskey yet, because I don’t think it’s officially hit the market. But Carey Bringle has announced that he’ll be releasing a new 8-year-old Tennessee Rye Whiskey in time for the holiday season. The 105-proof whiskey will go through Bringle’s unique hickory charcoal mellowing process before bottling which he promises will add a little smoke to the spice of the 95% rye/5% barley mash bill. This high rye recipe is historically known as a “Monongahela rye” after the traditional ryes of Pennsylvania, so you can expect it to be spicy.
“This is our first release in three years,” explains Bringle in his official product announcement. “We paid attention to every detail and the result was a finish that is more reminiscent of a 90-proof whiskey. Simply smooth. And as a Pitmaster, I wouldn’t be doing it justice if there wasn’t a smokey note. It’s expectedly unexpected.”
The limited edition will certainly be in short supply. “We only produced 1,200 six-pack cases,” Bringle says of the whiskey. “It’s going to be a hot commodity this holiday. We’re expecting that we’ll blink, and it will be gone—like a puff of smoke.” For a list of retailers, visit https://www.peglegporkerspirits.com.
On a side note, if you’d like to talk whiskey and barbecue with Bringle, he’ll be the guest of honor at the Swine & Wine weekend at Barnsley Resort about an hour north of Atlanta on Oct. 28-29. He’ll be cooking a whole hog in the eerie ruins of the old Barnsley Manor House, so it should be an interesting spot to sip wine pairings and enjoy some good pig.
In my quest to learn more about maltier American whiskeys, I’ve been keeping up with the latest developments from Five Trail Blended American Whiskey, the spirits offshoot of Coors that I told you about earlier this year. Working with Bardstown Bourbon Company, they have developed the second batch of their blend, an intriguing combination of 4-year Indiana wheated bourbon, 4-year Kentucky four-grain bourbon, 6-year Colorado single malt, and 12-year Kentucky bourbon.
Proofed down to 95 proof with mountain spring water, this melange of styles results in a delightfully nutty and fruity whiskey. There are so many flavor components in the final product, I’m not sure how I’d use it in a cocktail, but Batch 002 has been a great back porch sipper.
Five Trail has also released a limited series of other expressions experimenting with proof levels, different blends and cask finishes that you might be lucky enough to find in small quantities on local liquor store shelves:
Barrel Proof: Barrel Proof takes the Batch 002 blend and bottles it at 119 proof.
Cask Finish Series: Bottled at 95 proof, it’s crafted from a blend of 4-Year Indiana wheated bourbon, 4-Year Kentucky four grain bourbon, 4-Year Colorado single malt and 7-year Indiana rye. The whiskeys are rested in Imperial Porter Barrels from the AC Golden Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado and cut to proof with Rocky Mountain Water.
Small Batch Blend: The Small Batch is blended from a base of 4-Year Indiana wheated bourbon, 4-Year Kentucky four-grain bourbon, and 8-Year Colorado single malt whiskey with 17-Year Tennessee whiskey. It’s bottled at 95-proof.
Speaking of high malt whiskeys, my friends at Chattanooga Whisky have released the Fall 2018 Vintage of their Bottled-in-Bond Series, and it’s another winner! Again using their tried-and-true mash bills of SB091 and B005 as the base, they have included two really experimental recipes in the blend to show off what the mad scientists in their smaller distillery have been playing with to develop.
B002 and R18098 make up half of the final product and they feature some really weird fun malts like cherrywood smoked malt, naked oat malt, and de-husked chocolate malt. What does this do to the final product? It contributes delightful notes of sweet cherry, smoky cacao and caramel corn to the final product, so think of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Seek this one out and thank me later!
